The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-07-09
1.-THE BLOOD"

0@CON~
Christ his Son cleanseth us from all
sin )" but how is this done ?-t through
satisfaction made to God by the slaugh-
ter of the innocent in the place of the
guilty The very thought is absurd and
impious. God has no grudge against
creatures produced by his own creative
will and power. He can have no grudge
against them : especially none that
could be removed only by means of a
device contrived for the occasion. There
is no divine Anger to be appeased. There
is no offended Justice to be conciliated.
The Father Of us all ia not, and never
was, incensed against his children for
being what they were, and doing what
they did, after their creation in the i'm
age of God.
No provision is. or ever was needed
to reconcile San offended God to man
offending y for God was never offended
with his children for being and doing
what he eternally knows them as being
and doing. No remedy is called for to
obviate any difficulty that may have
arisen in the movement of the moral
creation, after the world began to move,
so to speak; for in the creation and rule
of perfect God, no difficulty can ever
interpose. There are difficulties with
men, but not with God. God could not
''be made favorable to his children af-
ter they sinned for he knows them as
SHINING from the very first of their I'M
derstanding; while he also knows that
he can and will educate them out of their
SHINING condition, and raise them to
the final holiness and happiness for
which he produces them. He is favor
able to them eternally SO. Therefore
he cannot be made favorable.
The phrase, 1.-THE blood of Christ, - is
never justly applied in any such sense
as above indicated, as an element of
cleansing from sin. God is perfect and
supreme. Therefore he can admit no
such conditions in his economy. He
can institute no such processes for Sc
curing a peace between himself and his
creatures. He needs no arrangement
for making himself favorable to his
creatures. He cannot be made favora-
able. He cannot be affected by any
device. He cannot devise device for
making himself favorable to them.
God is infinite man is finite. The
infinite cannot be offended by the finite.
He cannot be angry with the beings
produced by himself. He can have no
wrath toward them that must be APP
peased before they can be saved. There
fore the literal shedding of blood is of
no profit to the soul. There is no
cleansing in that. Literal blood is of
no use except to the material body;
nor even to that except while circulat-
ing through the arteries and veins.
After it is shed it is useless. 1t coag-
ulates, and soon decomposes.
The mystic phrase, 1.-THE blood Of
Christ" is Of no use or profit to US ex-
cept as a symbol. But the significance
of the symbol must not relate to death
and decomposition, but to life and sus-
tentation.
The blood, in this symbolical, use is
not the blood of slaughter poured out
''to appease the wrath of an offended
God'-to ''placate'' the anger of "an
incensed Deity"-but the life-sustain-
ing blood circulating through the sys-
tenn to purify, to nourish and to give
growth. AS the blood circulating in the
arteries and veins sustains the outer
man of our being, so the element of
spirituality sustains the inner man.
The principles of the earth life are rep
resented in the literal blood; the prin-
,iples of the heavenly life are repre-
'ented by the symbolical use of the
blood as the sustaining element.
These are the principles by which
he soul of Jesus was so nourished, that
he grew into the Christ-life while still
n the flesh; and the spirit of quicken